from the produce-your-own-crappy-ones dept

Remember back in January, when a SWAT team, at the direction of RIAA officials, raided the studio of a well known DJ and mixtape artist in Atlanta? This seemed like quite the overreaction to a system that had been known for its successful promotion of many RIAA-backed artists. However, after the DJs were arrested, the entire market was on notice and many mixtapes stopped showing up in the marketplace. In other words, many new acts lost a valuable channel for promotions. So what's a record label like Universal Music to do? Apparently start making its own mixtapes with some DJ that no one's ever heard of. Despite throwing the competition in jail, it seems that this attempt to coopt the mixtape space isn't working very well. The first Universal-backed mixtape has sold less than 6,000 copies since being released over a month ago and many record stores have very little interest in carrying it. Next time, perhaps the RIAA folks will ask the record labels they represent before throwing one of their biggest promoters in jail.

"Next time, perhaps the RIAA folks will ask the record labels they represent before throwing one of their biggest promoters in jail."

Perhaps...

or perhaps the RIAA will do what they have been doing for the past several years and throw the book at anyone who even thinks of sharing music via mixtapes (or mash-ups for that matter) ...or via others in the same room/car/area listening to music that was only purchased one-time (once) and not per-listener (many times).

Perhaps the RIAA will ask?

They don't ask. They sue. They hire SWAT teams. They punish little old ladies, struggling students, and innocent housewives. They strangle kittens, club baby seals, and pull the toes off three-day-old infants. They don't care, and they never will.

The RIAA has never learned from any of its mistakes, and it has made quite a boat load of them. Do you really, REALLY, think that they will "ask the record labels they represent" before doing anything?

Re #5 & General

@#5: Its amazing you even acknowledged that part of the comment and made your own reply just about it.

Along the lines of them asking before doing something.
Ha.
Like they asked Nine Inch Nails about the songs Reznor specifically released for free to promote his album before it was out before they started sending threatening letters to those hosting the songs.

Well, It might make some difference

One must consider that if they find themselves severely out of pocket because they hired a nobody to do a job that a somebody did better, they might learn from that. The thing to consider is why the original DJ's got their name, they are good. A nobody is a nobody, (I should know, I'm a nobody dj). On the plus side, I live in Ireland, so they can't get at me without a lot of pain on their part. If they do come for me, I'll gladly go too, just because they wasted so much time.

Remember the "Radio Taping is Killing the Music Industry" campaign back in the day and remember, they will survive and so shall we.

I just realized...

Ya know, I have this guy drives down my street every evening BLASTING crappy music. Maybe instead of calling the cops or shooting holes in his subwoofer, I should call the RIAA and let them know that he is "sharing" his music with the neighborhood.

Ah, they'd probably MAKE him play some new mashup everyday for the free advertising.

That's a great idea, Larry. Seriously, find out where he lives and tell them he's giving public performances of it (which he technically is). See if they send a SWAT team to steal, er confiscate his radio.

Well not quite...

Apparently start making its own mixtapes with some DJ that no one's ever heard of.

The fact that said dj is an unknown had nothing to do with it. Even Tiesto, Oakenfold, and Moby were nobody at some point. The problem is the RIAA tried to strong arm the competition and then plant their own dj on the scene. If corporations would stop trying to create word of mouth and buying street cred we would all be better off.

Re: Re: Re: Well not quite...

Sanguine,

I think that the issue that people are trying to point out is that there was an existing mixtape channel with name DJs promoting up-and-coming acts. However, these 'names' were arrested and Universal has been trying to imitate the culture they shut down.

Remember, this is about hip-hop mixtapes not trance and house DJs (so comparisons to Moby, Oakey, etc. are moot). The original scene depended on trusted DJs promoting unknown acts. Now they have an unknown DJ promoting acts that one record label are interested in - it's not going to work in the same way, even if the DJ becomes a 'name' in his own right.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Well not quite...

Okay from what I gather in your comment it almost sounds like we are saying the same thing. It would seem that the consensus is that the record labels (or at least Universal in this case) are trying to remove the djs that are promoting the rap and hip hop cultures and are trying to replace them with djs of their own backing. From there I started this comment thread by noting that having unknown djs promote is nothing new. It seems to me that this comment thread was thrown off course by that statement since it is focusing on the popularity of of a given dj instead the fact that the RIAA is running its old trick of trying to build a music scene to its own liking.